The Right to Suicide: a Psychiatrist’s View (IN: Suicide: the Philosophical Issues, ed. by M P Battin & D J Mayo)

Motto accepts the right to commit suicide. He acknowledges that limitations may be placed on that right in some kinds of psychiatric situations, but argues that the right must be respected if the individual has a realistic assessment of his life situation & if he displays little ambivalence about his decision. Motto then considers ways in which the stigma currently associated with suicide might be reduced & how this might facilitate clearer thinking by persons contemplating suicide. (4 refs.)